Fiji Shows Georgia No Mercy
- By ANJ MARINER
- •
- 04 Oct, 2019
Fiji has moved to second position in pool D after winning just one match. It will be short-lived though as the Wallabies play their third match against Uruguay this Saturday.
Fiji have won their first match at the 2019 Rugby World Cup defeating Georgia 45 -10.
Despite losing their first two matches Fiji are currently sitting in second place in their pool while both Wales and Australia are yet to play their third match. The Wallabies play Uruguay in their 3rd match and expected to win by a cricket score. Wales on the other hand will face a re-energized Fijian team who will be riding on the confidence of yesterday’s first win, not to mention an incisive awareness of what they’re really capable of.
The Wallabies piled on 19 points against Fiji with just 18 minutes of the match remaining, which saw them take the lead for the first time in the game precipitated by a yellow card to Levania Botia.
Four days later Fiji were hit for a six by a ruthless Uruguay side who bolted as soon they opened the gates. By the time Fiji realised they were about to suffer their second defeat in a row and to Uruguay of allteams it was all too late, the fulltime hooter sounding a warning to the Fijians that they needed to desperately re-think their remaining strategy.
Confident with the depth and skill in his team, Coach McKee made 12 changes to his starting lineup that faced the Wallabies just four days before. What should have been a good opportunity for these players to get valuable game time could have been a master stroke, however, his combination of young troops and a second-string line-up failed to deliver ultimately costing them what appears to be a quarter final spot.
Against Georgia the Flying Fijians were measured during the first half and leading only 7 – 3 at the break. Come the second half the flood gates opened with Fiji scoring six more tries, two from man-of-the-match Semi Radradra. Possession, turn-overs and defenders beaten are indicative of how Fiji perform during a game and this time around possession was 54%, turn-overs 16 and defenders beaten 37 which was more than double Georgia’s stats.
Semi Radradra has started in all three matches so far and was well deserving of man-of-the-match against Georgia racking up 17 carries for 177 metres, the most at the tournament so far. He also had five clean breaks, beat seven defenders, made three offloads and scored two tries, all more than any other player in this match.
Fiji's seven tries is the most they have scored in a RWC match for 20 years. The only time they have scored more was when they put nine past Namibia at RWC 1999.
Josua Tuisova became the first person to score a try in an Olympic final and then a Rugby World Cup match when he scored the third try for Fiji. He scored Fiji's sixth try of the 2016 Olympic Sevens final against Great Britain. Tuisova has now scored five tries in his last six test matches.
Leone Nakarawa made six carries, taking him to 104 carries overall in RWC games, the joint most ever for a Fijian player at the RWC, along with Sisa Koyamaibole.
Ben Volavola's ten points in this match means this is now his record RWC points haul (he has recorded 21 points so far at RWC 2019). He scored 16 points at RWC 2015.
Fiji meet Wales next Wednesday 9 October at Oita Stadium, Japan in a crucial match if they’re to hang in there with a chance of making the quarter finals. However, it will depend on how the Wallabies go in their remaining matches and how Wales go later against Uruguay in their final pool match.
